


stealing a moment

by SafelyCapricious



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-HYDRA Reveal, wssummer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 01:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4244580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma was obligated to attend the Bio-Chem Semi-Annual Charity Gala in order to try to get funding for SHIELD, despite how terrible it's going to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stealing a moment

**Author's Note:**

> This is for WardSimmonsSummer prompts "Thief" and "Midnight".

The Bio-Chem Semi-Annual Charity Gala was a headache. It was never actually attended by anyone who knew anything about biochemistry – just wealthy donors who liked to think they did. She’s been invited every year since she was fourteen but had only made the mistake of attending once.

This time it wasn’t a mistake, though she already regretted everything that’s led her to this point.

The philanthropic organization, such that it was, in an effort to be “hip” and appeal to the “younger” biochemical crowd had changed the time of the event. When she was fourteen it was an overly long but reasonably timed two pm to eight pm. This year it was eight pm to two am. (The most obnoxious part was that “young” clearly referred to the females, but not the males.)

Jemma made it clear in no uncertain terms that she was staying, at most, until midnight. But she was desperately hoping she could escape before then, honestly. She hadn’t quite gotten to the point of hoping for an explosion when the evening had started – but now, three hours and some change in, she was considering the merits of turning some of the available alcohols into explosives and leaving them in the loo.

The most obnoxious part was that it wasn’t even something dangerous – she wasn’t on an undercover mission, she wasn’t picking up something or spying on someone or anything. No, she was basically there as eye candy to try to talk some of these wealthy men who were “interested” in biochemistry to donate and support SHIELD’s science department. 

She was sure that these sorts of thing were happening before the reveal of HYDRA, but she’d _never_ been asked to do them. Now _everyone_ had to do them, their numbers were so depleted.

Fitz had gone to one just last week and come back terribly drunk, pale and traumatized. He still flinched whenever anyone said the word “Spirochete”, though no one could figure out why.

She wanted to be sympathetic, but already found herself resenting him.  _She_ didn’t even have the option of getting drunk. That wasn’t quite right, she did, but she didn’t trust any of the men around her enough and based on some of the comments they’d let drop as _they_ got increasingly intoxicated, it was a reasonable distrust.

Thankfully the bartender – who she noticed moved like he may have been military, or even SHIELD and though she didn’t recognize him she wasn’t willing to bet that he wasn’t, in fact, assigned here from May – seemed to understand. And even when the men insisted on buying her a drink – which they seemed to do every few minutes regardless of how much she still had in her glass – he was kind enough to water them all down and vanish them just as quickly as she put them down and subtly pushed them away from her.

He’d also given her just soda a time or two. Which she was unaccountably grateful for and she was sure the looks she shot him conveyed that.

And since she wasn’t actually sure he was sent by May, she would make a big deal of tipping him – since the rich men surrounding her didn’t seem to want to do that on their own – and then of course they would insist that she didn’t need to and they would. So even if he was just looking after her for the frankly ludicrous number of tips she’d managed to get for him, he was still looking out for her and she appreciated it.

Mr. Greyor, one of the most persistent men – but also one of the wealthiest and most likely to donate to SHIELD – was drunk enough that she’d started to wince every time he opened his mouth.

She chanced a glance at the clock and saw that it wasn’t yet midnight. She tried to turn her grimace into a smile as she turned to him, his hand heavy on her upper arm as he squeezed it in what she was sure was meant to be seductive but really just made her want to bathe.

“Are you a thief,” he slurred at her, “because you’ve stolen my heart.”

He continued to stare at her intently, as if he expected an actual response. She tried not to let her smile turn back into a pained grimace, grasping for something to say that wouldn’t display her disgust, insult him or make him not want to donate to her cause and failed for a long moment.

Someone leaned into her back, his chest brushing her shoulder blades and though she wanted to know who it was – she was also afraid it was going to be Mr. Maynard or Mr. Smythe and she couldn’t tell them to shove off so her only options would be to stay against them or step closer to Mr. Greyor and…

She took a steadying breath and glanced up and went stock-still.

 Ward twinkled down at her before turning his attention to Mr. Greyor. “Excuse me, sir, I have to steal Miss Simmons away from you for a moment. We’ll be right back.”

Mr. Greyor squinted at Ward before blinking and waving a hand through the air, mumbling something that Jemma didn’t try to understand.

And then Ward was guiding her with a firm hand on the small of her back around the curve of the bar to where it hit the wall. She let him lead her to a stool, needing his help to perch on the edge of it because her dress was tight all the way down.

He moved to take a step away from her and her hand latched onto the arm of his tuxedo jacket. “If you leave me alone to go back to them I am going to create a virus that only affects you and makes it feel like a thousand needles stabbing into your eyes for eternity.” 

He stared at her for a moment but didn’t move, before wetting his lips and turning his attention to the bar. “Douglas, what did you give her?”

She didn’t release his arm but she turned enough to see the bartender who had been keeping an eye on her was turning pale and shaking his head slightly.

She blinked and let out a soft, “oh”, before tilting her head and nodding. “He’s one of yours. I should’ve known.” She waved her free hand through the air and said, “He didn’t give me anything – well, nothing sinister, he’s been keeping me safe and has been nothing but a gentleman. You should probably give him a raise.” She gave Douglas a bright smile that only seemed to alarm him more.

Ward was watching her carefully before glancing back at the bartender. He finally spoke. “I didn’t give her anything, Sir. I promise. I also tried to keep her from getting too drunk, but…” He shrugged, helplessly. 

Jemma sighed and shook Ward’s arm her fingers fisting in his sleeve tighter. “Look, I’m not drunk and I’m not drugged, I promise you. What I am is relieved that I have a moment without potential financiers pawing at me, so thank you.”

Ward arched an eyebrow and glanced back the way they came before fixing his intense gaze on her. “You do know that I’m in charge of HYDRA now? I sent Coulson that gift basket, so I’m assuming he told the rest of you.” 

She waved a hand through the air, and let out a breath. Yeah, he was HYDRA but he also wasn’t feeding her bad pickup lines and, maybe she was wrong, but she didn’t think he was going to try to get her drunk and follow her back to her hotel.  “I’m aware. But you also saved me from Bakshi when he tried to kill me in the Arctic and, quite frankly, I’d rather take my chances with you than with them.” His eyebrows kept rising as she spoke and then she shrugged and added, “Plus May is right outside, I have like eight imbedded trackers at this point, and I know you don’t want to actually hurt me.”

He considered her for a moment and then, gently tugging free of her grip, took the stool by her side. “So what, you just expect me to stay until May shows up to try to kill me?” 

She wrinkled her nose. “No, I expect you to stay until midnight – at which point I can claim that I didn’t want to risk our investors to you and vanish and you can steal off like a thief into the night.”

He made a gesture at Douglas and she watched him fill up two glasses of soda water and fruit before pushing them across the bar. “And what do I get out of this?”

She shrugged and took a drink of her soda, shooting Douglas a grateful look that made him flush and shift uncomfortably. “You get that time to futility try to win me over to your evil, murderous cause.”

He clinked his glass against hers and grinned, bright and beautiful. “Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> My writing tumblr can be found [here](http://capriciouswrites.tumblr.com/)! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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